Biden formally nominated for No. 2 Democratic spot

DENVER (Reuters) - Veteran Sen. Joe Biden accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination on Wednesday and hailed running mate Barack Obama as a wise leader who will take the United States in a new direction and out of the Iraq war.

Biden heaped praise on the 47-year-old, first-term senator, who will accept the party's nomination as presidential candidate in a speech in Denver on Thursday, as an inspirational force for needed change.

"He has tapped into the oldest American belief of all. We don't have to accept the situation we cannot bear. We have the power to change it," Biden, 65, a U.S. senator from Delaware for 35 years, told the Democratic Party convention in Denver.

Biden was formally nominated by acclamation. He and Obama will face Republican candidate John McCain, who has yet to announce his pick for No. 2, in the November 4 election.

With the United States battered by the unpopular Iraq war, record home foreclosures, high gasoline prices and a sputtering economy, Biden took a slap at McCain, a bona fide war hero, without mentioning the 71-year-old former Navy pilot and Vietnam war prisoner, by name.

"These times require more than a good soldier," Biden declared. "They need a wise leader, a leader who can deliver change, the change everybody knows we need."

(Reporting by Tom Ferraro; Editing by David Storey)